Miraculous Story

Part 7

Marinette was in the locker room by herself, putting her books away. Tikki was in her purse by her hip. "Ugh, I am so glad that this day is over," she said to Tikki as she closed her locker door. She turned around and found herself face to face with Adrien.

"Ahhhhh!" she screamed as she jumped back and clutched her hands to her chest. Adrien just stared at her. After catching her breath, Marinette yelled "Adrien! You almost scared me to death!"

Adrien chuckled. "Sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to scare you." He kept smiling at her. "Who were you talking to?"

"Uh... uh... no one! Just... talking to myself. You know me," she sputtered.

He smiled wider. "I wanted to talk you about the beret. It wasn't in Miss Bustier's class like you said."

"Really? Oh, well, that's strange. I'm sure it will turn up somewhere," Marinette said, plastering a fake smile on her face.

"It probably will," Adrien replied as he glanced at her earrings before looking back at her face. "You know, it was a gift from my fan club."

"Oh, yeah... you, um, said that earlier."

"Yeah, but it's kind of weird because I was just talking to Alix, and she told me that you made the beret."

Marinette's face dropped. "Al... Alix said that?" she asked.

"She did. And I was thinking that, it kind of makes sense that you made it. I mean, you're always designing and making things. It would completely make sense that you made it for me."

"I... I didn't make it for you," Marinette said as her face paled.

"Well," Adrien continued, "it's funny, because Ladybug is the one who dropped it off in my room. And, I don't know, I was thinking that it would make perfect sense that you made the beret and then you dropped it off at my house. It would make sense that you are Ladybug." He looked at her hopefully.

Marinette stopped breathing. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm not Ladybug," she said quietly.

"But, you know that if you were, and you wanted to tell someone, that you could trust me, right?" he asked, moving closer to her.

Marinette was shaking her head slightly as he spoke. "I'm not Ladybug," she repeated.

"Okay," he said slowly, "but if you were, you could tell me."

"Th... there's nothing to tell," Marinette said, barely at a whisper. After a moment she cleared her throat and said "Look Adrien, I... I need to go." She started to walk towards the door.

"Okay," Adrien said softly, watching her move away. He took in a deep breath. "You know, I'm really good at keeping secrets. I've got a pretty big secret myself, Princess."

Marinette froze. It felt like the world was crashing in around her. Adrien had just called her 'Princess.' The only person who called her that was...

"No," she whispered, still frozen in place. She slowly turned her head towards her right side to look in her purse. Tikki was inside, peeking out at her. "No," Marinette whispered again as she shook her head. Tikki didn't respond. Marinette kept shaking her head as she turned back to face Adrien. "No, it's not you," she said slowly, her eyes full of tears.

Adrien started walking towards her. "It's me."

Marinette shook her head and glanced down at his right hand. She closed her eyes as soon as she saw the ring on his fourth finger. The tears were now running down her face.

Adrien went up to her and gently put his hand on her shoulder. "It's okay. It's just me. Your secret is safe."

Marinette lifted her head up and opened her eyes so she could see him again. She reached her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. He wrapped his arms around her waist as the two of them embraced each other. Adrien could hear Marinette sobbing. He held her even tighter. After a minute, he felt her pull away slightly. She dropped her arms down to his chest and looked up at him with the faintest smile on her lips.

"Adrien," she said simply.

"Marinette," he said back.

He reached up and wiped a tear off of Marinette's cheek. The two slowly moved closer, tipping their heads downwards, until they were resting their foreheads against each other. They both closed their eyes. Neither of them knew how long they were there for. Maybe it was a couple of seconds, maybe it was a few minutes.

Suddenly the door to the locker room opened up as Nino and Alya walked in. Upon hearing the door, both Adrien and Marinette jumped and moved apart from each other. Nino and Alya stopped in their tracks when they saw the scene before them. The four friends stared at each other.

"We... we're sorry," Alya said, looking back and forth between Adrien and Marinette. "We didn't mean to interrupt..."

"No, you're not interrupting anything," Marinette said quickly.

Alya spoke again when she noticed that Marinette had tears all over her face. "Marinette... are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Marinette replied as she wiped the tears with her hand. "I was... I was just leaving."

She quickly walked over and left the room, closing the door behind her. Alya and Nino glanced at each other  before they looked back over at Adrien. He wiped his eyes as he silently walked past his friends and left the locker room.

Even though she had left only seconds before him, Adrien didn't see Marinette in the hallway outside of the locker room. He quickly went down the stairs and into the courtyard. She wasn't there. He then rushed outside to the front steps and looked down the sidewalk towards her house. Still no sign of her. His heart dropped when he saw his bodyguard waiting for him. He didn't want to go home. He wanted to talk to Marinette, to assure her that everything was going to be okay. But he couldn't do that right now. He had to go home.

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Marinette saw Adrien's car drive away. After she had left the locker room, she ran outside and had collapsed against the side of the school. She now put her hands to her face and started crying again. Tikki came out of her purse and flew up next to her.

"Marinette, I..." Tikki started to say before Marinette cut her off.

"I can't right now, Tikki," she said, never lifting her head up.

Tikki slowly went back into Marinette's purse.

Marinette stayed at the school for another twenty minutes or so. She wanted to make sure that she wouldn't see Nino or Ayla again as they left the building. Marinette ran home and went directly to her room. She just wanted to be alone. She needed time to process what had happened.

Sitting at her desk, Marinette looked at the designs that she had drawn the day before. It felt like a lifetime ago that she had made them. Things were different now. Everything was different.

Eventually her parents called her down for dinner. Her parents had noticed that she wasn't eating a lot at dinner lately, but tonight Marinette barely touched her food.

"Are you alright, sweetie?" Marinette's father asked her.

"I think I'm just really tired tonight, Papa," she replied. "If it's okay, I think I'll go to my room and go to bed."

"Of course," Marinette's mother said. "Let us know if you need anything."

"Thanks Maman," Marinette said. She stood up and went back to her room.

Tikki was there waiting for her.

"I'm sorry, Marinette," Tikki said sadly.

"There's nothing to be sorry for Tikki," Marinette replied. "I'm the one who didn't want to know our identities. You didn't do anything wrong."

Tikki flew up and hugged Marinette's cheek.

"And I'm sorry about earlier, I just didn't know what to say," Marinette continued.

"It's okay Marinette. You're still the best Ladybug that I've ever had!"

"Thanks Tikki. I'm going to lay down for a while. My head hurts from thinking too much."

Marinette climbed up the stairs to her loft. Once she reached the top she saw the beret laying on her bed. Her heart stopped as she suddenly remembered the cause of the day's events. She reached over and picked up the beret. She turned to look at Tikki.

"We need to go see him."